Apparently this topic's in the air, what with the release of the Imitation Game this month.

顯然這個主題現在正夯，畢竟《模仿遊戲》這個月剛上映

That film's about Alan Turing and cryptanalysis of those German Enigma machines during WWII.

那部電影是關於亞倫圖靈以及二戰時期德軍「恩尼格瑪機」的密碼分析

I said cryptanalysis and not cryptography, a word you may know better,

我說的是「密碼分析」，而不是你比較熟知的「密碼學」

because cryptography is about sending a message securely by changing it, often changing it so it looks meaningless.

因為「密碼學」是指為了安全傳送訊息而將其加以改變，這樣訊息就看起來毫無意義

This is obviously useful when there's a way for the receiver to change it back and see the original message.

當接收訊息的人有辦法將密碼轉換回去看見原始訊息，這顯然就很有用

Cryptanalysis, on the other hand, works out ways to understand and break those systems,

另一方面，「密碼分析」則是找出理解和破解這些密碼系統的方法

to understand how the message is being changed by this system

了解這些訊息是如何被密碼系統改變的

so that you, unintended recipient with your prying eyes, can read the original message.

如此一來，像你這樣想窺探秘密的非接收者就能解出原始訊息

But this is all my brother's field. I should grab him and you two can talk about it sometime.

不過這是我兄弟的專長領域，我應該把他找來，你們就能找個時間聊聊這個話題了

It's all separate from decipherment, which is an attempt to recover messages in an unknown writing system.

這兩者和「解碼」(decipherment) 不同，「解碼」是試圖解出我們不了解的書寫系統裡的訊息

Cryptanalysis works with texts that were meant to elude you.

「密碼分析」處理的是讓你解不開的訊息

Decipherment works with messages that were once plainly readable,

「解碼」則是處理曾經可以讀得懂的訊息

but aren't any more thanks to accidents of history.

這些訊息因為歷史上的種種意外現在無法閱讀了

So, as you'll see in next Friday's video, which contains both, hidden codes often use characters we recognize to hide a secret message,

你可以在下週五的影片中看到兩者的不同，密碼通常使用的是我們認得的字母來隱藏訊息

undeciphered scripts have characters we can't even read or identify

尚未解讀出來的文字則是用我們不會讀或不認得的字母寫的

that stand between us and a not-so-secret, or not intentionally secret, message.

這分隔了我們和那些「沒那麼秘密」（或不是故意要變得秘密）的訊息

Of course, there is that pesky Voynich manuscript, which may be both!

當然，還有那麻煩的伏尼契手稿，它可能兩者皆是！

With all this in mind, you've got a bit of background to appreciate next week's video.

知道了這些，你在欣賞下週的影片時就已經有了一點背景知識

I'd like to take the time to welcome all new subscribers, you're making it so much fun to talk about language here.

我想花點時間歡迎新的訂閱人，你們讓討論語言變得非常有趣

Big smiles for all of you! And let me know in the comments if you're interested in continuing this topic

給你們一個大笑臉！也請在下方留言告訴我你們有沒有興趣繼續這個主題

with a short series that looks deeper at the decipherment of writing systems like Egyptian and Mayan.

用小系列影片來更深入探討埃及語和馬雅語書寫系統的解讀